A California Congressman with a long history of targeting video games for legislation is at it again.

Last week Rep. Joe Baca (D) introduced H.R. 231, a bill which would require that warning labels be placed on any game rated T (13 and older) or higher by the ESRB. Baca's bill is titled "The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009."

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) co-sponsored the measure which would apply to both packaged and digitally distributed games. The bill has been referred to the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

[The bill] creates a new rule within the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which forces games with a Teen rating or higher to be sold with a simple warning label, reading: "WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior."

While Baca has proposed several video game-oriented bills in Congress over the years, none have passed. Lately, he seems to have focused his attention on the ESRB rating process.

UPDATE: Rep. Baca's office has issued a press release on H.R. 231, including these comments from the Congressman:

The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers – to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products. They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility. Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous products.

We must hold the video game industry accountable and do everything in our power to ensure parents are aware of the detrimental effects that violent games can have before making decisions on which games are appropriate for their children to play. I am proud to introduce the Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009, and am hopeful my legislation can work to stop the growing influence of violent media on America’s children and youth.

Comments

Why is this guy so obsessive about video games? It’s not like the millions of people buying and playing games everyday are turning into murders. You might as well put warning signs on any movie that has violence as well… I wish this guy would be fired.

WARNING: Excessive pointless legislation may lead to congressional job opening.

He can purpose just as much if not more pointless legistation as a private citizen.What a good way to spend tax payers money and to abuse what little time he has left.

Honestly there is so much more he should be focusing on. I hope he and others like him are replaced by someone who can put their petty disagreements on how our childern should be raised (by parents not the gov) and actually does what they should be doing.

"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers – to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products."

By that reasoning, every product ever made should have a warning label. Everything is 'potentially damaging'. There's not a single product on this planet that is 100% guaranteed not to be potentially damaging.

What next - food labels that say that food can potentially choke you? I mean how friggen stupid do lawmakers have to get?

"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers"

No, they don't. Once you have purchased a videogame, it is up to the consumer to take responsibility for their own actions. This kind of mindset is moving along the same lines of putting the responsibility to act witha little common sense int he hands other the companies, the government, and any other organization so the parents don't have to do all of that hard decision making. I don't see how this warning label BS is going to get anywhere.

"Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people."

Actually, it's been the other way from what I've seen. The only thing that research has proven is that an unhelathy amount of exposure to anything has the potential to mess with a person's behavior. The research they've come up with is along the lines of, "If a person watches a video of someone being brutally murdered with a chainsaw for 6 hours they may begin to have thoughts about murder."

What they need to do is label *everything* this way. Especially sports. Don't let any baseball, basketball, football or shuttlecock go un-marked. Parents should be warned of the highly aggresive behavior that is spawned from these implements in their children, sometimes even spreading to the parents themselves.

We can only hope that later legistlation will do more to stem the tide of violence between players eternally flowing from sporting events around the world.

I think we should have a new bill submitted by the readers of game politics.

The Politicians of the USA has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers – to inform them of the potentially damaging comments that is often found in their speechers. They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility. Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between blaming violent games and increased waste of tax payers money in the American Governemnt. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous legislation especilly in a time of Recession.

We must hold the Politicians of the USA accountable and do everything in our power to ensure parents are aware of the detrimental effects that blaming violent games can have before making decisions on which legislation are appropriate for politicians to make. I am proud to introduce the Stop blaming Video Game for the Violence in Children & Health Labeling Act of 2009, and am hopeful my legislation can work to stop the growing influence of waste of tax payers money on America’s legislation that goes against the freedoms of youth speech and expression protected by the 1st Admendment of the US constitiution.

I think that there is something to that "bill". Remove the focus on the governments attack on video games and replace it with a more general statement that condems their waste of time and our money on stupid topics in general, with video games being one of them.

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Responsibility: Something that everyone has, but no one seems to want when something goes wrong. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I can't wait to see the USA and the Western World in the next 10-20 years. Taxes or outright laws aginst fatty foods. Warning labels on EVERYTHING. People afraid of everything new. Businesses afraid to release products or even open their doors lest they get sued. Its going to be friggin' Demolition Man...

This is one of the most idiotic bills i've ever seen proposed. Hope this dipshit get booted out of congress next election although i doubt it. Kim-Jong could be running as a democrat in california and still win because he's got democrat under his name. Anyone else hate the rampant nanny-statism, protectionism and pro-censorship bullshit amoungst the Democrats these days. We need a party that is fiscal/economic: moderate liberal and social/civil: libertarian. No more of this nanny-state bullshit.

"No law means no law" - Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on the First Amendment

"No law means no law" - Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black on the First Amendment

I would like a law about bills that politicians either know wouldn't stand up to constitutional muster or should know wouldn't stand up to constitutional muster. I'd call it the "Legislative Negligence Bill" and it'd carry the following penalties:

- The bill's sponsor(s) would be required to pay out of pocket for court costs.

- Offenders would be required, at their own cost, to submit any further bills they sponsor to a constitutional expert at a major university.

- Repeat offenders would be removed from office immediately and be barred from running for election again due to incompetence in addition to the financial penalty.

Might be too harsh and has no chance of passing, but someone needs to rein in stupidity.

"[The bill] creates a new rule within the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which forces games with a Teen rating or higher to be sold with a simple warning label, reading: "WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior."

There are SO many things wrong with this... like:

Studies have NOT shown a link to violent video games and aggressive behavior.

It assumes that T or M rated games recieved their rating because of Violent Content. How would it apply to games like Dead or Alive Xtreme 2?

It's entirely unconstitutional due to it singling out video games.

If he can propose a bill like this, I think I should be able to make one that puts a warning label on Congressmen like him, saying:

WARNING: THIS PERSON HAS BEEN PROVEN TO WASTE TAXPAYER MONEY ON USELESS BS LEGISLATION THAT WAS NOT NEEDED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

(By the way, this is my first post on Gamepolitics )

EDIT: And there is already a "Warning Label", the ESRB ratings. If parents already ignore the rating that is RIGHT ON THE DAMN BOX, what makes him think that parents will pay attention to a little label?

DoAX2 has violently giggling breasts! They attack each other with their butts! Tug of war is an assertion of strength! They almost kill each other with the volleyballs! The jet-ski crashes are too realistic.

I'm just wondering where the video game industry has "failed" in warning parents about potentially aggressive/harmful/mature content. I mean, the ESRB, in my opinion, has done a pretty good job for being voluntary. I think that it's the parents' fault for their failure to do research on whatever little Johnny's begging them to spend their hard earned cash on. I mean, we already have warning labels right on the boxes of video games; they read E, T, M, AO, etc.

That APA study they always use is faulty and misleading like nobody's business.

Increased levels of agression were based on playing the video game, and then overseeing somebody take a test, where if they were wrong, you'd blast them with an airhorn. People who played the violent games blasted the air horn for a little longer than those who did not.

And they chalked that up to increased aggression. However...they completely forget the fact that they FORCED YOU TO DO SOMETHING AGRESSIVE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! Nobody just played video games, and radomly started committing aggressive acts, punching puppies and kicking kittens. Within the context of the study, you were required to punish the incorrect response with the loud buzzer/airhorn.

So they always forget to mention that while performing an aggressive act, if you've recently played violent video games, you might exhibit increased levels of aggression.

There are no studies that can prove a link between spontaneous aggession and playing violent games. So violent video games don't cause you to act aggressively...but if you are already in an aggressive situation, you are slightly more prone to be more aggressive than somebody who hasn't played a violent game recently.

This is just due to "having your game face on" and has nothing to do with video games per se. If the person was watching a violent film, or a series of bone-crunching NFL hits, had a recent argument with a friend/co-worker/spouse, or having an intense workout lately...then the results would most likely be the same....

"You know what I wish? I wish all the scum of the Earth had one throat and I had my hands about it."

"You know what I wish? I wish all the scum of the Earth had one throat and I had my hands about it."

People would probably blow the air horn longer after listening to one of this idiots congressional speeches too lol. I guess that means we should put a warning label in the middle of his forehead.

Seriously though, you could probably find people blowing the air horn longer for all kinds of content, violent and non-violent. I dont trust these "researchers" anyhow, they always have an anti-violent media agenda - theyre not objective.

"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers – to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products. They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility. Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous products.

We must hold the video game industry accountable and do everything in our power to ensure parents are aware of the detrimental effects that violent games can have before making decisions on which games are appropriate for their children to play. I am proud to introduce the Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009, and am hopeful my legislation can work to stop the growing influence of violent media on America’s children and youth."

As long as we are putting warning labels on things, how about this idea?

[*WARNING] - Congress has been greatly responsible for warmongering, suppression of civil liberties, aggressive government spending, inflation, structuring a Nanny State for us all to live under and the frequent misrepresentation of the constitution.

So Mr. Joe Baca, what is your opinions on that for giving fair warning to the people for the safety of their family and themselves?

[*WARNING] - Congress has been greatly responsible for allowing warmongering, suppression of civil liberties, aggressive government spending, inflation, structuring a Nanny State for us all to live under and the frequent misrepresentation of the constitution by Bush/Cheney. They are grossly incompetent and/or lazy. Do not vote for them in the next election, elect someone new, seriously guys these people are idiots.

There have always been motherf*ckers, there will always be motherf*ckers, but what we can't do is let them control our motherf*cking lives. -John Oliver, December 1st, 2008

There have always been motherf*ckers, there will always be motherf*ckers, but what we can't do is let them control our motherf*cking lives.
-John Oliver, December 1st, 2008

"WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior"

Except it hasn't.....?

I swear, what do they not understand about a little box in the corner of a game that has a symbol telling you what age group its for? Does a game rating have like, glitter and neon lights surrounding it to draw attention?

Not 100% certain, but I think you can show that the person making the statement should know that their statements aren't true to get a slander or libel charge to stick. That might carry a lesser penalty or count for malice.

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ZippyDSMlee: .....win8 hates any left over hidden install partitions from other version of windows....only waste 5 hours finding that out...its ahrder than you think keeping up with 4 or 5 HDDS......03/03/2015 - 4:44am

Matthew Wilson: I am going to pax east, any games you guys want me to check out?03/02/2015 - 11:23pm

ZippyDSMlee: No one remembers the days of Cinemagic and Cynergy eh? :P, meh even MGS is getting to film like....03/02/2015 - 8:44pm

MechaTama31: I was about to get all defensive about liking Metal Gear Solid, but then I saw that he was talking about "cinematic" as a euphemism for "crappy framerate".03/02/2015 - 8:29pm

prh99: Just replace cinematic with the appropriate synonym for poo and you'll have gist of any press release.03/02/2015 - 5:34pm

Monte: Though from a business side, i would agree with the article. While it would be smarter for developers to slow down, you can't expect EA, Activision or ubisoft to do something like that. Nintnedo's gotta get the third party back.02/28/2015 - 4:36pm

Monte: Though it does also help that nintendo's more colorful style is a lot less reliant on graphics than more realistic games. Wind Waker is over 10 years old and still looks good for its age.02/28/2015 - 4:33pm

Monte: With the Wii, nintnedo had the right idea. Hold back on shiny graphics and focus on the gameplay experience. Unfortunatly everyone else keeps pushing for newer graphics and it matters less and less each generation. I can barely notice the difference02/28/2015 - 4:29pm

Monte: ON third party developers; i kinda think they should slow down to nintendo's pace. They bemoan the rising costs of AAA gaming, but then constantly push for the best graphics which is makes up a lot of those costs. Be easier to afford if they held back02/28/2015 - 4:27pm

Matthew Wilson: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/02/28/the-world-is-nintendos-if-only-theyd-take-it/ I think this is a interesting op-ed, but yeah it kind of is stating the obvious.02/28/2015 - 2:52pm